Brent Jackson's 1965 Chevrolet Corvette - The Project - Hot Rods

Many people will build a nice hot rod and keep it, while others will build something just for the joy of the work and sell it soon after finishing to finance the next project. Brent Jackson is an example of the latter. He built a twin-turbo '57 Chevy and a '69 Camaro, and after selling them both, he had the funds (most of them anyway) to buy his dream car, a midyear Corvette. He ended up finding a wrecked '65 with, in his words, "almost no front end and a bent frame" for a reasonable price. Because it needed a lot of work, and because he had fiberglass experience from working on boats, Brent made the decision to alter the car the way he wanted to, with some custom tricks to give it a modern look.

2/9Brent and his boys did "some crazy fiberglass work"-they lowered the nose and rear pan by 2 inches and built the chin spoiler from scratch. The grille has blacked-out horizontal bars with polished front edges and LED turn signals.

With a full Paul Newman Car Creations chassis, a twin-turbo Tom Nelson engine, a custom interior, and mile-deep paint, it may seem like a megadollar checkbook ride; while it certainly wasn't cheap to gather those top-notch parts, the labor costs were nil, as the car was built and painted entirely in Brent's home garage. And it turned out so good that Brent and his sons, Andrew and David, decided to build cars full time, creating Brent Jackson's Customs in Grass Valley, California.

There are just enough custom body tricks to make it different from other Vettes on the road, but not so many that it's a clownishly modified version of one of the sexiest cars to ever roll off an assembly line. And with 800 hp under the hood, it's no slouch on the street, either.

3/9The rear bumpers and rocker panels were molded into the body, the glass was flush-mounted, the door handles were shaved, the side fender vents were opened, and the cowl vents were filled. The black paint was sprayed by Brent and his sons with a little help from a local painter and plenty of trial and error. The side pipes were built out of 4-inch stainless steel tubing. The tires are 345-19 Michelin Pilot Sports on Intro wheels (245-18s in the front).